The New Mandolier
by Ragna ICEland
Summary: A young man at the Mandoliere School stirs Silvia's memories. One-shot.


**A/N: Hi, guys. Due to popular demand (years later! I am amazed!), here is another little look into the world of Stravaganza. I might have a couple more ideas up my sleeve but I don't promise they'll come into existence soon if at all, I'm kinda off my writing game, I'm afraid. But I hope you'll like this one.**

**The New Mandolier**

The Duchessa was quite restless during the ceremony at the mandolier school. The days of her youthful mischief were long past, the handsome mandoliers did not excite her any more. Her heart already belonged thoroughly to Rodolfo. She was thinking of him behind her elaborately decorated mask as she made a show of examining the row of young men.

Last night they had finally done the deed they perhaps should have done 16 years earlier and it was a strange occasion. Rodolfo had been delighted when she first suggested it, shortly after he came to her with an unusual reading of his cards. But then she had seen the brief flash of sadness in his eyes when she told him they must keep it a secret for now and he even knew her well enough not to question her too much. He knew she must have her reasons and she did, but it hurt her no less to hurt him that way.

If Silvia wasn't as hardened as she was, she might have liked to sigh and bemoan the loss of the past, but she was not that kind of woman.

Still, when she looked at these hopeful young men, she couldn't help but think how none of them compared to the black-haired, severe young man she had fallen for so many years ago.

Suddenly she blinked and straightened in her seat. A young man had caught her attention. Not one of the hopeful mandoliers but one in the audience, a commonly dressed boy but he had black hair and dark eyes, although they were bright with interest.

As she called him to her, she was transported years back in her mind.

Silvia had been young and absolutely certain of her beauty and power. She strolled into the school's hall, where the ceremony took place, flanked by guards. She noticed two young men in the audience who were already alumni of the establishment and nodded to them surreptitiously. She had chosen the brothers Edigio and Fiorentino Rossi for her personal mandoliers some years prior and knew them quite intimately and they winked back. She wondered if they had come to support a friend or family member.

Then it was time to begin the ceremony and, alternating between her usual methods of intimidation and flirtation and sometimes both at once, Silvia amused herself with the young men's reactions. Then she came to a very tall and slender man with black hair and sharp serious eyes. She looked up at him.

"What is your name?"

"Rodolfo Rossi, your Grace," he said with a steady voice and bowed his head politely.

"Oh, are they your family?" she nodded towards the Rossi brothers and Rodolfo nodded in reply. "Yes, my lady, my older brothers."

"Interesting," she said, looking him up and down, already envisaging him tangled in her bedsheets. "You do look more of a learned man, than a mandolier."

She wondered whether he'd be defensive or apologetic but he narrowed his eyes and his lips twitched in a way that set her heart in full motion and caught her off guard.

"I assure your Grace, I am a very capable learner in every field."

It was true. As a mandolier, he was capable but not a stand-out. But Silvia didn't much mind. She always had her way and before long he was in her bed.

Often the ones she took there were self-consciously focused on trying to please her or otherwise striving to make themselves believe their own prowess to be unmatched.

It was different with Rodolfo. It wasn't as much about taking and receiving but sharing. The intensity of it sometimes frightened her but then she'd look into his deep eyes and lose herself in them, and his kisses and embraces. The tingling feeling inside her was new. Nothing like the temporary relief she got from the others. It blossomed whenever he touched her, or whispered her name or even looked at her but the name of these emotions was slow coming to her.

They talked. They had conversations that lasted for hours. She told him of the matters of state that occupied her and he always had something to say about it and had his own opinions about the government and her ruling. As they lay together one night and she traced lines with her fingers through the hair on his chest, he talked about reforms he would suggest, if he had the power to affect the senate, to shut down loopholes the upper classes used to minimize their taxes. When he talked to her like this, she was afire, body, mind and soul.

"You shall!" she said. "You shall tell them all of your brilliant ideas. And they'd listen. I know they would, you would persuade them. Hah, you could persuade them to double their own taxes if you wanted."

He smiled. "Don't exaggerate."

She turned her head to look into his face. "You are made for more than this. You can become anything you want."

He shrugged. "Well, I'd need some kind of qualification, a time at a university. Perhaps with my mandolier pension…"

-"No, you shouldn't waste time. I can help you." She took his face in her hands. "I know you pretend not to be ambitious, but you know this is not the best you can do. I want you to do better, I want you to soar." She couldn't believe how much she wanted this for him, she had never known the feeling of wanting to prioritize someone else's well-being above her own.

Rodolfo struggled to speak. "Why Silvia?"

"Because… I… I..." she hesitated.

Now he was grasping her face tightly in his palms, his eyes searching hers.

"Tell me Silvia, tell me you love me as much as I love you."

"Yes! I do," she finally burst out with a sudden revelation that made her want to soar herself. "I do love you, oh Goddess-" he cut her off with a crushing kiss.

Then, some time later, she had sent him off to the university in Padavia and when he came back on a break, his eyes were alive with energy. He had a million things to tell her about his studies and his interest in some obscure sciences. She only understood half of it but delighted to see him so engaged. It even translated somehow into his love-making and she was only falling deeper, despite the fact that they were separated months at a time.

One time he came back in a somber mood, dressed all in black velvet and told her of some fellow scientist he had met in Bellona and experiments he wanted to perform.

Again, she didn't understand most of it but the next time Rodolfo returned to Bellezza, she had a surprise for him. She took him to her chambers but not to the bed. Instead, she showed him a secret passage from the room, leading to another room, dark and empty but spacious. Large enough to accommodate any research he might want to conduct.

When he understood, he took her in his arms and swung her around and then kissed her fiercely and Silvia thought she had never been happier.

Several months later, she began to notice changes in her body. Everything changed and she could not confide in Rodolfo.

All these memories flashed through the Duchessa's mind as she asked the boy with the curly black hair his name and welcomed him to the school of mandoliers and young Luciano was none the wiser about her unfathomable smile.

Being so preoccupied with her thoughts, Silvia did not notice the small disturbance in the audience as a girl with wild, chestnut hair angrily pushed her way out the door. But ever since Rodolfo – _her husband_ – had come to her with his readings, where a young girl and the number sixteen were prominent, she knew that everything was about to change again. Although this time, to what result she had no idea.


End file.
